Old Confidant | Ken/Aly

Kendera had officially moved to Kildere Village, a Russian town she had only really visited before when she was twenty-one. She'd spent most of that time 'as' Liddy, or as Lidwina Krause, to be precise. At the time, she'd had no reason to remain. Now, however...

Well, Liddy had always been determined to see Dagereth Lestrange meet a messy end; an aspiration which Kendera fervently shared.

That wasn't what brought her to the pub at that moment, however. No, she was there to visit an old... well, confidant, of sorts. Though, Kendera never did tell Aalyrial about Liddy.

"Ah, bravo," Kendera said, voice loud enough to carry through the near-empty establishment. "Love what you've done to the place. Truly. It's... inspiring. Very modern; I like it."

Aalyrial turned around, dropping the expensive wine bottle she held in her hand.

She had barely heard its deafening shatter as it hit the ground.

"Holy shit." She breathed out, blinking once or twice to make sure that the ghost from her past was really there standing in front of her.

Aly never had friends, the closest she had been to having a friend was the only girl she'd ever confided in. And that girl had suddenly disappeared from Aly's life some time during their seventh year. And with that disappearance Kendera had taken every last ounce of the fun, carefree, hopeful girl that Aalyrial was.

Aalyrial completely disregarded the mess that now covered the floor in front of her. She could worry about that later, but right then she couldn't help but smile.

"Ken!" She shook her head, keeping back her tears. Thank god Kendera was back. Aalyrial couldn't imagine that Kendera was 100% the same as she was all those years ago, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was that Kendera was here, and Aly would take the time to reacquaint herself with the once very kind and misunderstood girl. "Where the fuck have you been?"

Kendera smiled almost sheepishly. "A bit of everywhere, really," she replied easily. "Picked up several more languages along the way. I already knew German, Russian, English, Latin, French, and Polish, of course, but now I know, um... Spanish, Swedish, Welsh, Gaelic, and even Mandarin.

"Sorry I didn't write," Kendera said, the sentiment sincere. "I know I should have, I just didn't. I've been well, though. Really. I've learned a lot. Oh - and I'm a Potions Mistress, now. In fact, I accepted a teaching position as the local school place. I don't remember what it's called.

Aalyrial could understand that she didn't write, the world was such a crazy place right now. And it wasn't like Aalyrial had gone out of her way to find the girl anyways, although she had exhausted all of her resources trying to find the girl. She'd stopped after the first three years.

"Dont worry about it, I dont know why you came back here." Aalyrial whispered as she finally bent down to pick up the bits of broken glass. "You are only going to get caught up in the black hole here."

Aalyrial sighed, "Yeah, I got married. Oh you'll kill me when you find out who I got married too."

When Kendera and Aalyrial had been close friends, Aalyrial and Kendera had both made it clear to one another how much they hated Dagereth Lestrange, and how much the both of them wanted to kill him. And now Aalyrial was married to his brother, she'd sold out.

"Oh, I think you know why I came back here, Aly," Kendera stated lightly, though her eyes momentarily became a dark red-brown. She also bent to start picking up the glass. She preferred to use a charm, herself, but this wasn't her establishment, and she had time to kill.

"Aleron Lestrange," she replied, glancing up at the other woman. "Such a prestigious wedding - it was all over the newspapers. Not what I thought you meant when you said you were going to get close to his brother. How's that working, by the way?" A thin trace of cruelty entered her tone. It was Dagereth's fault, mostly. Kendera had never forgiven him his faults.

Kendera sighed. "I suppose he can't be too much worse than the man I married," she smirked. "He was bad enough that people wanted to see him killed."

Kendera leaned back on her haunches, elbows resting on her knees. "I remember the Lestranges very clearly, Aly," she said, tone very quiet. "I know that dog is my boss, but really, we must think of the children, right? They must be taught, regardless of who rules this part of the wizarding world."

At some point, Liddy had slid into control and she rose to her feet, leaning against the counter and facing out into the room.

"One day, justice will be delivered, you know," Liddy stated, matter-of-fact. "It's way these things work. Always. I've seen it happen, you know."

"Oh, pretty good," Liddy said. "The influence of certain scum is hardly felt in western Europe. I've been living on my inheritance - as the sole heir of the James family, of course." That was a lie; she lived on the money she made assassinating people, though she did have the inheritance. "My grandparents wouldn't give a disappointment like me a penny of the Krause estate, and I wouldn't want it.

"Mostly, I've been travelling for so long, I've decided to settle somewhere for a while." Also not wholly true. She'd still be travelling the world on jobs. Killing people was in her blood, now.

Aalyrial smiled, "Just the tavern. Thank god I dont have kids, I dont know what i would do if my kids had to grow up with Aleron as their father." She moved over and grabbed two firewhiskeys. "You drink?" She asked as she offered Kendera the drink.

"Oh, I dunno. I'm but a lowly potions mistress, of course," she said with false modesty. People paid lots of money for her brews. "Mostly, I thought, 'Why not?' Might as well pass on my knowledge, influence the young, if I can. All that sort of stuff.

"More interesting, why a tavern mistress?" Kendera questioned. "Not that I disapprove. It's brilliant, but you were gifted with potions, also. You were also the Occlumency professor's apprentice. What brought you here, might I ask?"

Aalyrial shook her head. "I dont know. I just... It was either this, working at the school under the scrutiny of my husband, or in the inner circle under Ksenia's command. Besides, when I'm here no one can tell what to do, and no one bothers me. If they piss me off I can kick them out."

"I'm still rather good at both potions and occlumency, however." She continued, taking a swig of her drink.

Kendera wrinkled her nose. "Well, I certainly understand how you wouldn't want either of those," she laughed. Kendera did a lot more laughing - and talking, for that matter - than she had as a teen. In fact, one could say she looked happy.

Perhaps, in a way, she was.

"I'm sure you are. DeNoir would probably murder you and use you for potions ingredients if you weren't," the woman grinned. "And occlumency is a very handy skill. I'm a natural at that bit, fortunately. Never could get a handle on legilimency, though.

"So, tell me," Kendera said, "apart from being home to the local royalty, does this town actually have anything to offer? Or have I just moved to the dullest place on earth?"

Aalyrial laughed, she hadn't thought of her once potions master in a very long time. Despite his mean and utterly unorthodox teaching method; he'd been a great mentor. "Yeah I'm sure he would. Legilimency isn't that hard, once you have occlumency down. It takes much less time concentration."

"Absolutely the dullest town ever. Anyone that needs something to do, comes here and gets smashed."

Aalyrial laughed. "My husband... well..." She didn't really know how to explain it. Sometimes she felt like he had the most glorious sexual talents; and other days she was sure that he was the most selfish sexual partner anyone could ever have. "He's good..." She trailed off.

"Tell you what, one of these days, you and I shall have a night out - somewhere else. Just us girls. Whattaya say? It'd be fun, wouldn't it?" She rested her chin in one palm, brown eyes gazing at Aly expectantly.